thewheel wrote: Q: Have you ever heard of --on small budget docs-- the directors doing a very rough initial editing job--- that is to arrange the major and most important parts of interviews, and key shots in basic order with a rough sense of transitions, essential b-roll? So that a real editor/colorist can go in and make it sing, tighten it, figure out the music and weave it in, and call for different, more, or better b-roll, etc
Yes. "Paper edits" are common — meaning that directors/producers take the transcripts and copy paste sections together with notes on the scenes and visuals put together into a script. Directors who know some editing software may prefer to do this in an NLE, though there's not necessarily an advantage to that over a clear script. There are also tools like Lumberjack Builder to assist with sifting through interviews and exporting edited interview selects to an NLE
http://www.lumberjacksystem.com/builder-nle-2/Whether a paper edit (or pre-edit) done by a director/producer ends up saving the editor much time depends both on how well it is structured + written, and how well the source material was captured in line with the story outlined in the paper edit.
If you're making a feature length documentary, I'd strongly suggest hiring an experienced assistant editor to ingest and organize the media before the editor starts work. If you don't already have a post team and workflow in place, generally it is best to hire an assistant who the editor has worked with before.
Also, I would advise against considering editor and colorist as a combined role. Editing and color grading require very different skill sets. It is extremely rare that a talented documentary editor also happens to be a talented colorist.